Only 35 students signed up for new school so far

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Only 35 students signed up for new school so far

Posted by

Mike Buffington

in Education Archives

Wednesday, May 11. 2011

Comments (14)

Barrow County Schools gave its students a May 6 deadline to submit applications to its newest high school, called the College and Career Preparatory Academy, but that deadline has been extended.

So far, only 35 students have signed up for the new school, which is designed to teach 150 students.

According to Barrow County School Superintendent Wanda Creel, the system is planning more recruitment in the middle schools
The CCPA will be housed in the old Bethlehem Elementary School building and is still slated to open Aug. 11.

Creel said Monday nothing new has been added to the plan for the new school and the system is currently working to figure out which teachers will transfer over.

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#1 Anon on 05/11/11 at 08:11 AM [Reply]

I just don't think people understand who this school is targeting. Traditionally, career-prep = vocational. Is that the case here? If so, why combine that with college prep? Every high school student should either be preparing for college or a vocational career - what makes this school any different? Basically, is this school for the best and brightest students, or is it for those who need extra help to get through high school?

#2 TickedOff on 05/11/11 at 04:15 PM [Reply]

Anon, call the board and ask them. Id love to hear their response. Im not realsure they know either. But it obviously was not a rousing success soooo, either it was poorly presented or simply not needed. Either way our tax dollars are paying for it. When did we start "recruiting" students to enroll in a particular school? I ve said it on numerous occasions that ALL Barrow Co. high schools should be college and or carrer prep. Correct me if Im wrong, the student declares which path he/she takes, classes are assigned accordingly, and your diploma has a seal noting the path you chose. Another wasteful and futile effort to put a band-aid on a much bigger problem. Heres a challenge for yor Mrs. Creel, go back to a regular school day, give teachers the support they need to instill discipline and back it up. Cut all the fluff. Im referring to graduation coaches, parapros, principals, and other hanger-ons that have retired but still want a little fun money.
And require your board to regularly visit the schools in the districts the represent. Have them to report how we can continually improve the system. I know thats pie in the sky thinking but hey, the new "nontraditional" gig aint working is it.

#2.1 TO is a fool on 05/12/11 at 08:00 AM [Reply]

Calm down. Of course the school still has to figure out its identity. They don't even know who is going to be teaching there. If the school wasn't opening, the county would have to pay for our students to go to another district.

And if you think schools move slowly now you misinformed troll, just get rid of the paraprofessionals and principals and w3atch them really crawl.

#3 TickedOfff on 05/12/11 at 09:32 AM [Reply]

Thank you for validating my statements. Read your post. Things like find identity, don't know whos going to be teaching, are areas you cover before you advertise for students to "sign up" for a new school. The real reason these decisions havent be made is due to the fact that if there is lack of interest it will be easy to walk away from it. Don't call me a fool or misinformed. Include this whole county. Because thats exactly what your BOE takes the taxpayer here in Barrow Co. for.
And they have been right, no one asks them to explain and be accountable. Thats why this little venture is so vague. Time for folks to WAKE UP and it seems like they just may be starting to.

#3.1 Sick of Trolls and Idiots on 05/12/11 at 12:56 PM [Reply]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adequate_Yearly_Progress#Unsuccessful_progress

I know that you think you are so smart, but PLEASE read the section about Unsuccessful Progress about AYP. If there is no 3rd HS next year offered as a choice, no matter how small or vague it is or whatever, we WILL have to pay for Barrow residents to attend other districts. Just imagine if all the people out by Chateau Elan were allowed to go to Gwinnett Schools on our tax payer dollar. Since we would not have to provide transportation to another county, it would mean that only the people with the ability to drive thier child to another county's school would take the offer. Statistically speaking kids that have parents that are willing and able to drive them 30 minutes to school each day are of a higher socio-economic-status; the number 1 predictor for great test scores.

I'd rather keep what little funds we do have in Barrow and not elsewhere.

Give the school some time!

AND I was at the county meeting. It's a catch 22. The district needs to know what sort of students are interested to make the correct staffing choices. If a bunch of AP kids want in then they need to get AP teachers. If it's kids that failed a year, then they need remediation teachers.

But if you want to really hurt the county by all means, raise hell and stop the 3rd HS. Our best kids would go to other districts and making AYP would be even more of a challenge.

#3.1.1 Mike Buffington, Publisher on 05/12/11 at 01:06 PM [Reply]

I posted your comment here, but I do think there is some question about attending other school districts. The law was set up such that if a school fails AYP several times, students can move to another school WITHIN the district, but it's not clear that they get that choice out of district. I don't think any other district can be forced to take a child from out of district.

#3.1.1.1 Anonymous on 05/12/11 at 01:35 PM [Reply]

http://www2.ed.gov/parents/schools/choice/choice.html

There you go Mike. I'm not sure how many parents go for taking their kids to a different school, but they sure can.

#3.1.1.1.1 Mike Buffington on 05/12/11 at 03:05 PM [Reply]

Thanks for the link. But from what I read here and from my own checking on this, schools that are not in district cannot be forced to take any outside students; it can be done by agreement, but no local schools have those agreements in place.
School choice under AYP does not mean a student can attend a different school system unless that school system agrees to such an arrangement.
Also, the school has to be a Title I school; not all schools meet that criteria.

#4 Harry on 05/12/11 at 12:20 PM [Reply]

I agree that the purpose of this school is vague, to say the least. Nobody is comprehending who the target group of students this will be most beneficial to.

With the confused message of what the purpose of the school was, the deadline was not a resonable date and has obviously needed to be extended.

Ruling out the number of students who can attend by excluding, band, sports, etc..., really limits the number of eligible or interested students/parents.

I do not believe an impact study was performed by the BOE or Dr. Creel to gather enough info on the number of students that may want to enroll in this program. This has led to an accelerated implementation, budget issues and total confusion with all aspects of this venture.

Why do we not know who the teachers will be? Many parents may want to know who will be there.

Why is Dr. Creel still "planning" more recruitment? Seems desperate to say the least with the money already spent up to this point and the notion that out milleage rate may increase.

"Nothing new has been added"? I am assuming this is wrt hiring and budget issues. Just the fuel costs alone in bus expenditures will be costly, not to mention the added bldg operational and maintenence costs.

SPLOST was supposed to take care of the added BOE needs and now a school milleage rate increase and added furlough days are needed. Furloughs are nothing more than lowering our educational employees salary/wages to get the same amount of work done with the children. That, in my opinion, will get our best teachers and staff looking for work elsewhere.

Dr. Creel and the BOE really should do a bit better at managing our tax dollars.

35 students......how much have we already spent for 35 students?

I'm sure the BOE and Dr. Creel can do a better job at getting an appropriate message out as to what this school is all about vice completely fail in this venture. Oh yeah.....and change the deadline date on the commitment form on your website. That might be a good start.

#5 Phil on 05/12/11 at 04:36 PM [Reply]

Again I ask "Dr Creel when are you going to take a cut in pay or take the 6 days off with no pay like you are asking the teachers to do?"

Also Danny "When are you and your fellow BOC members going to cut your pay?" You have asked others to be cut and be laid off. Should you not have to suffer too?

I keep asking but none of you have the GUTS to answer this question.

Lord cut everybody elses pay and lay them off but don't touch my pay. Is this how you want the tax paying public to preceive your actions?

#5.1 Superstar on 05/15/11 at 06:40 AM [Reply]

Good point about pay cuts. I'm just curious if Dr. Creel got any of her kids on the payroll when she came. When she was in Houston County, there were a lot of pay cuts. But, she some found grant money to create a position for her daughter at an elementary school working in a computer lab. This was done after all the instructional technology coordinators were cut! I'm not saying the same thing is going on in Barrow, but it's worth looking into once the cuts and tax hikes come!

#5.1.1 Anon on 05/17/11 at 08:34 AM [Reply]

Yes, Dr. Creel's daughter works at County Line Elementary! I saw her there and was told by a teacher she was working there and that was on open house last year!

#5.1.2 anon on 05/17/11 at 06:31 PM [Reply]

Her daughter has a parapro position at one of the elementary schools.

#6 Fortitude on 05/12/11 at 04:55 PM [Reply]

From what I see the College prep is for students who want to learn and not goof off at school. If you are falling behind, you can go there and make up the courses, they have the non-block schedule and you will be in a smaller learning environment, so smart kids and dumb kids can go there.
Also, if you know the BOE board members do not make the decisions to open schools, they vote on policies and on what Dr. Creel suggest. Alot of what occurs in the school system is from the desk of Dr. Creel and I urge anyone to contact their board member as I did to find out what is going on

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